1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reproducing apparatus, to a reproducing method, and to a storage medium.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, in a VCR reproducing apparatus or a DVD reproducing apparatus, a fast-forward operation or a rewinding operation is performed while video displayed on a display unit or a counter of a reproducing time is being viewed. During the fast-forward operation or rewinding operation, a user needs to continuously watch the video displayed on the display unit or the counter at the time of the operation, which stresses users' eyes. For this reason, a technique has been known in which among video data stored in a DVD or the like, representative video of each scene is thumbnail-displayed (for example, JP 2005-033714A).
However, according to this technique, in the thumbnail display of the video data, since a fast-forward operation or a rewinding operation cannot be performed for every scene, it is not possible for a user to reproduce desired audio data. Accordingly, devices that visualize a variety of audio data have been known. For example, a device that displays a sound waveform and the thumbnail (for example, JP 10-191248A), a device that displays a bar graph in which the temporal variation of sound data in a meeting or the like is discriminated for every speaker (for example, JP 08-317365A), a device that analyzes audio data, and separates the temporal variation of the audio data by colors for every frequency band and displays the temporal variation by a bar graph (for example, JP 09-090937A), and a device that analyzes audio data and displays the analyzed audio data in a three-dimensional graph having a time axis, a frequency axis, and a power axis (for example, JP 08-292791A) have been known.
Further, methods of visually displaying audio data by using display other than the above-described graph display (for example, JP 08-179791A, JP 11-109988A, and JP 2000-330600A) have also been known. For example, a method of analyzing audio data, determining whether the analyzed audio data is a human voice or music, and performing icon display (for example, JP 08-179791A), and a method of performing character display on audio data by using an audio recognizing technology (for example, JP 11-109988A) have been known. Further, a method of displaying a three-dimensional diagram using an analyzed value obtained by analyzing audio data as one side on a time axis, and deforming the three-dimensional diagram to edit the audio data (for example, JP 2000-330600A) has been known.
Further, as a general method that does not depend on various types of audio, for example, research narrowed to a specific sound source, such as a voice, has been made (“Visible Speech” published by Van Nostrand in New York, in 1947). Further, attempts that visually displays audio for the people with hearing difficulties to recognize the audio have been made public (“Audio Visualization for the People with Hearing Difficulties” disclosed in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of Japan, Vol. 52, No. 12, pp. 979, 1996).
Meanwhile, in a case in which a user performs a fast-forward operation or a rewinding operation to reproduce desired audio data, the user recognizes a visually displayed location (current time point) of currently reproduced audio data in visual display of the audio data, so that the user can easily recognize a visually displayed location of desired audio data.
However, according to the technologies disclosed in JP 08-179791A, JP 11-109988A, and JP 2000-330600A, when the audio data is reproduced, visual display does not vary according to the passage of time. In the visual display, as the reproducing of the audio data progresses, the location of the current time point moves, and thus the user should read out a portion that display in which the reproduced audio data at the current time point is visualized corresponds in the visualized display. As a result, it is not possible for a user to view contents of the past or the future based on the current time point. That is, since the visualized display of the audio data according to the related art is display on the absolute time axis, the relationship between the currently reproduced audio data and the visualized audio data is not necessarily obvious. As a result, it is difficult for the user to recognize the contents of the desired audio data at the time of reproducing the audio, and thus it is not possible to sufficiently support the reproducing operation of the audio data.
In this case, the supporting of the reproducing operation of the audio data means supporting performed such that during the fast-forward operation or the rewinding operation, one-touch operation can be made without the user monitoring the contents of the audio data every moment during the operation, supporting performed such that the fast-forward completing time point or the rewinding completing time point can be forecasted in advance so as to prevent the fast-forward operation or the rewinding operation from being excessively performed, or providing information to the user such that the user can recognize contents to the extent of determining the new reproducing time point without the contents, which do non need to be recognized in advance by the user, such as an end of a drama, being exposed to the user, in an operation that reproduces the audio data from the new time point.
Further, according to the methods disclosed in “Visible Speech” published by Van Nostrand in New York, in 1947, and “Audio Visualization for the People with Hearing Difficulties” disclosed in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of Japan, Vol. 52, No. 12, pp. 979, 1996, the audio data is limited to the voice data, and the audio data including the voice, the music, a natural sound, or the like cannot be visualized.